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Emboldened Algerians announce new protest march
Emboldened by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Algerian opposition leaders, announced a second protest march in the capital despite a longstanding ban on demonstrations there.
The National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD) - having formed a coalition of opposition parties, rights groups and unofficial unions - have announced the new march for next Friday, after a meeting of its leadership.
It will start from May 1 Square, where Saturday’s demonstration also took place, said lawyer Moustepha Bouchachi, president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), which is part of the CNCD.
On Saturday, nearly 30,000 police prevented some 2,000 protesters marching the four kilometres (three miles) from May 1 Square to Martyrs Square. The security forces made 14 arrests — 300 according to the opposition.
That did however not stop another demonstration in Annaba on Sunday, where four police officers were slightly injured during clashes with young protesters outside the local government headquarters.
The media offered a mixed review of Saturday’s rallies, with the pro-reform daily Liberte topping its coverage with the headline: “Change is on its way”. But the government daily El Moudjahid dismissed the Algiers rally as only a “weak echo” of events in Cairo and Tunis.
On Sunday, CNDC spokesman Khalil Moumene condemned what he said was the brutality of the security forces and the arrest of opposition activists the previous day.
In the meantime, The United States and Germany meanwhile called for restraint from the Algerian authorities on Sunday, a day after a massive security operation prevented 2,000 protesters from marching in Algiers.
